a new version of Snow White
by doctor who luver
Summary: Snow white but different. She stays in a hunter's cabin when the Queen goes out to hunt her. She tutors seven children.


Skin as white as snow

Lips as red as blood and

Hair as black as the ebony wood

A wish made upon a star by my mother and one that came true for her, she just didn't know that she wouldn't be alive to see me grow up. My stepmother has a mirror that she loves to stand in front of for hours on end asking the same question over and over.

"Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

And the mirror always replies with the same answer.

"You are, you are. You are the fairest in the land." Showing an image of the Queen with arms open wide as if to embrace the real image of herself. I know she does this and she always has me promise to never enter the room in case I ended up hurting myself.

At the age of fourteen I met a young boy handsome with light hair that shines in the sunlight. He tells me his name is Arik and being my age I thought it romantic and wondered if he was my prince. We spend hours together talking about things, laughing and just getting to know each other and over time we started to fall in love.

Another four years have passed now and as I walk past my stepmother's fabled room I pause when I can hear her asking the mirror the question she has most grown to be obsessed with these so many years. Stopping on my way to the meet up with Arik, a hunter who is escorting me to the Summer Palace, I press my ear against the door waiting to hear the mirror's response.

"Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

"The Queen's beauty is fair it's true but Snow White is more prettier than you." A loud scream echoes through the closed door to the room as the Queen is denied the answer she so seeks. The door opens at the end of the hall and I jump back away from the door hoping whoever just walked into the room wouldn't notice that I was spying on my stepmother through the door. Arik looks at me and doesn't say a word just takes my hand and steers us both towards the exit and outside into the woods.

"Are you trying to get caught by your stepmother?" He asks turning me around to face him keeping his hands firmly on my shoulders and leaning down so his eyes can meet mine.

"No of course not but that mirror of hers just declared that I am prettier than her." I shake his arms of my shoulders and his eyes dart away to stare off into the distance thinking about something that I can't quite put my finger on.

"You have to get away from here. Wait right here I am going to get some things for you to take with you when you run away. You will hide and in a few months time I will come and bring you back to the palace." Nodding my agreement I sit weakly on a fallen log and wait for him to return, when he does he is carrying a basket filled completely with bread, cheese, fruit, wine and water.

"Keep going straight you will come across my hunting cottage stay there in two months time I will come to you and take you back to the palace to be my Queen." I blush and with a quick goodbye I turn and run off into the woods not caring that the seven children I normally tutor on a Wednesday would be wondering where I am.

For the next few weeks I live alone in Arik's cottage keeping myself busy by going out everyday and sitting on the grass reading a book or collecting food and water to survive. Finally the day arrives when Arik is to come and find me in this place digging around the bottom of the basket I pull out a blood red apple that had managed to hide itself. Taking it and one of the books outside sitting beneath one of the big trees that overlooked the house, sun trying to shine through the clouds. Arranging myself into a comfortable position I open the book and take a bite from the apple thinking about how much I want to return home. Choking on the apple the book slips from my lap and the world tilts at odd angles before my body just drops to the ground and the apple rolling away from my hand.

Arik has finally managed to overthrow the Queen and he has pinned her to a wall in the dungeon with sword blades through her wrists and ankles, he now makes his way to his cottage in the woods. Opening the door and looking around he cannot see Snow White anywhere within the house he decides that she must have gone out to get more food and goes along to a window hoping to catch when she returns. A piece of dark cloth seems to be caught on a fallen log outside and it hits him then that it isn't just a piece of cloth but hair, black hair. Throwing the door open he runs out and over to her fallen form placing his hand against her face he finds her skin cold and deathly pale. Picking up the apple he pockets it and lifts her into his arms carrying her all the way back to the palace gently placing her body on the bed.

Many doctors and medicine men rush into the room and crowd around the bed trying to diagnose what is wrong with Snow White moving over to a table in the centre of the room he places the apple on it for them all to see.

One describes it as poison, another says that there must be a piece of the apple stuck in her throat but they all come to the same conclusion that the apple is going to cause Snow White's death if they didn't do something soon to save her.

"Snow White stay with me please. Don't give in to the apple. Keep fighting." He leans over her and kisses her cold dead lips.


End file.
